Semyon Konstantinovich Timoshenko (; ; – 31 March 1970) was a Soviet military commander,

Marshal of the Soviet Union Marshal of the Soviet Union (, ) was the second-highest military rank of the Soviet Union. Joseph Stalin wore the uniform and insignia of Marshal after World War II. The rank of Marshal of the Soviet Union was created in 1935 and abolished in ...

, and one of the most prominent

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...

commanders during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. Born to a Ukrainian family in Bessarabia, Timoshenko was drafted into the

Imperial Russian Army The Imperial Russian Army () was the army of the Russian Empire, active from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was organized into a standing army and a state militia. The standing army consisted of Regular army, regular troops and ...

and saw action in the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

as a

cavalry Historically, cavalry (from the French word ''cavalerie'', itself derived from ''cheval'' meaning "horse") are groups of soldiers or warriors who Horses in warfare, fight mounted on horseback. Until the 20th century, cavalry were the most mob ...

man. On the outbreak of the

Russian Revolution The Russian Revolution was a period of Political revolution (Trotskyism), political and social revolution, social change in Russian Empire, Russia, starting in 1917. This period saw Russia Dissolution of the Russian Empire, abolish its mona ...

he joined the Red Army. He served with distinction during the

Russian Civil War The Russian Civil War () was a multi-party civil war in the former Russian Empire sparked by the 1917 overthrowing of the Russian Provisional Government in the October Revolution, as many factions vied to determine Russia's political future. I ...

and the subsequent

Polish–Soviet War The Polish–Soviet War (14 February 1919 – 18 March 1921) was fought primarily between the Second Polish Republic and the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, following World War I and the Russian Revolution. After the collapse ...

, which brought him into

Vladimir Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov ( 187021 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin, was a Russian revolutionary, politician and political theorist. He was the first head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 until Death and state funeral of ...

's and

Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Dzhugashvili; 5 March 1953) was a Soviet politician and revolutionary who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin, his death in 1953. He held power as General Secret ...

's favour. Rapidly rising through the ranks, Timoshenko held several regional commands throughout the 1930s and survived the

Great Purge The Great Purge, or the Great Terror (), also known as the Year of '37 () and the Yezhovshchina ( , ), was a political purge in the Soviet Union that took place from 1936 to 1938. After the Assassination of Sergei Kirov, assassination of ...

. He led the Ukrainian Front during the

Soviet invasion of Poland The Soviet invasion of Poland was a military conflict by the Soviet Union without a formal declaration of war. On 17 September 1939, the Soviet Union invaded Second Polish Republic, Poland from the east, 16 days after Nazi Germany invaded Polan ...

in 1939. In early 1940, Timoshenko took over the command of the

Winter War The Winter War was a war between the Soviet Union and Finland. It began with a Soviet invasion of Finland on 30 November 1939, three months after the outbreak of World War II, and ended three and a half months later with the Moscow Peac ...

in Finland from Kliment Voroshilov and turned the tide for the Soviets. In May 1940, he was named a Marshal of the Soviet Union and the People's Commissar for Defence. In the latter capacity, he took steps to modernise the Red Army and prepare for a likely war with

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...

. On the outbreak of the German invasion of the Soviet Union, Timoshenko was named chairman of the Stavka. Replaced by Stalin himself a month later, he went on to hold a series of important commands in the following year. In late 1941, he organised a major counter-offensive in Rostov, which brought him international renown. His fortunes had faltered by mid-1942, in particular after the overwhelming Soviet defeat at the Second Battle of Kharkov, and he was relieved from the command of the newly formed Stalingrad Front. He was recalled later that year and appointed commander of the Northwestern Front, and as a Stavka representative he oversaw and coordinated the activities of several fronts in various times during the last phase of the war, including the

Leningrad Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

, Volkhov, and

North Caucasus The North Caucasus, or Ciscaucasia, is a subregion in Eastern Europe governed by Russia. It constitutes the northern part of the wider Caucasus region, which separates Europe and Asia. The North Caucasus is bordered by the Sea of Azov and the B ...

Fronts and the Black Sea Fleet, and the 2nd and 3rd Ukrainian fronts. After the war, Timoshenko held commands in several Soviet military districts until his effective retirement in 1960. He died in 1970 at the age of 75.

Early life

Born in Orman in the Akkerman uezd, Bessarabia Governorate of the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

(present-day Furmanivka,

Odesa Oblast Odesa Oblast (), also referred to as Odeshchyna (Одещина), is an administrative divisions of Ukraine, oblast (province) of southwestern Ukraine, located along the northern coast of the Black Sea. Its administrative centre is the city of Ode ...

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

), to an ethnic Ukrainian family.Wojciech Roszkowski, Jan Kofman (2016). "
Biographical Dictionary of Central and Eastern Europe in the Twentieth Century
'". p. 1030.

Military career

First World War

In 1914, he was drafted into the army of the Russian Empire and served as a

man on Russia's western front in the

. Upon the outbreak of the

in 1917, he sided with the Bolsheviks, joining the

in 1918 and the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) in 1919.

Russian Civil War

During the

of 1917–1923, Timoshenko served on various fronts. He fought against Polish forces in Kiev and then against Pyotr Wrangel's White Army and Nestor Makhno's Black Army. His most important encounter occurred at Tsaritsyn, where he commanded a cavalry regiment and met and befriended

, who was responsible for the city's defense. The personal connection would ensure his rapid advancement after Stalin gained control of the Communist Party by the end of the 1920s. In 1920–1921, Timoshenko served under Semyon Budyonny and Kliment Voroshilov in the 1st Cavalry Army; Budyonny and Voroshilov became the core of the "Cavalry Army clique" which, under Stalin's patronage, would dominate the Red Army for many years. In April 1920, he was given command of the Sixth Division of the Red Cavalry, which was the first to attack the Polish army during the 'May offensive' launched by the Red Army during the Polish-Soviet War. On 29 May, the Sixth Division charged Polish trenches, taking heavy casualties for no gain, which convinced the Soviet commanders that charging trenches was pointless.

The 1930s

By the end of the civil and Polish–Soviet wars, Timoshenko had become the commander of the Red Army cavalry forces. Thereafter, under Stalin, he became Red Army commander in Byelorussia (1933); in

Kiev Kyiv, also Kiev, is the capital and most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both sides of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2, ...

(1935); in the northern

Caucasus The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region spanning Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is situated between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, comprising parts of Southern Russia, Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan. The Caucasus Mountains, i ...

and then

Kharkov Kharkiv, also known as Kharkov, is the second-largest List of cities in Ukraine, city in Ukraine.

(1937); and Kiev again (1938). In 1939, he was given command of the entire western border region and led the Ukrainian Front during the Soviet invasion of eastern Poland. He also became a member of the Communist Party's Central Committee. Due to being a loyal friend of Lenin and Stalin, Timoshenko survived the

to become the Red Army's senior professional soldier.

World War II: The Winter War

In January 1940, Timoshenko took charge of the Soviet armies fighting

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

in the Soviet-Finnish War. This began the previous November, under the disastrous command of Kliment Voroshilov. Under Timoshenko's leadership, the Soviets succeeded in breaking through the Finnish Mannerheim Line on the Karelian Isthmus. His reputation increased, Timoshenko was made the

People's Commissar Commissar (or sometimes ''Kommissar'') is an English language, English transliteration of the Russian language, Russian (''komissar''), which means 'commissary'. In English, the transliteration ''commissar'' often refers specifically to the pol ...

for Defence and a

in May, replacing Marshal Voroshilov as the Minister of Defence. British historian John Erickson has written:

Although by no means a military intellectual, Timoshenko had at least passed through the higher command courses of the Red Army and was a fully trained 'commander-commissar'. During the critical period of the military purge, Stalin had used Timoshenko as a military district commander who could hold key appointments while their incumbents were liquidated or exiled.

Timoshenko was a competent but traditionalist military commander who nonetheless saw the urgent need to modernise the Red Army if, as expected, it was to fight a war against

. Overcoming the opposition of other more conservative leaders, he undertook the mechanisation of the Red Army and the production of more

tank A tank is an armoured fighting vehicle intended as a primary offensive weapon in front-line ground combat. Tank designs are a balance of heavy firepower, strong armour, and battlefield mobility provided by tracks and a powerful engine; ...

s. He also reintroduced much of the traditional harsh discipline of the Tsarist Russian Army. In June 1940, Timoshenko ordered the formation of the Baltic Military District in the occupied

Baltic states The Baltic states or the Baltic countries is a geopolitical term encompassing Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. All three countries are members of NATO, the European Union, the Eurozone, and the OECD. The three sovereign states on the eastern co ...

World War II

1941–1942

In the weeks before the German invasion of the Soviet Union, Timoshenko and Zhukov were worried by reports that German planes were crossing the Soviet border at least 10 times a day, and on 13 June, they asked Stalin for permission to put the troops on the western border on high alert, but were overruled because Stalin was convinced that there would be no German invasion before spring 1942. General Ivan Boldin, deputy commander on the western front, recounted in memoirs published 20 years later that early in the morning of the invasion, on 22 June, when several towns in Belarus, including

Grodno Grodno, or Hrodna, is a city in western Belarus. It is one of the oldest cities in Belarus. The city is located on the Neman, Neman River, from Minsk, about from the Belarus–Poland border, border with Poland, and from the Belarus–Lithua ...

, were being bombed, aircraft destroyed on the ground, troops were being strafed, and German paratroopers were landing behind Red Army lines, Timoshenko rang him with an instruction that "no action is to be taken against the Germans without our knowledge ... Comrade Stalin has forbidden to open artillery fire against the Germans". On 23 June, Timoshenko was named chairman of Stavka, the Soviet Armed Forces High Command. In July 1941, Stalin replaced Timoshenko as Defense Commissar and Stavka's chairman. At the same time, the Western Front was divided into three sectors, with Timoshenko put in command of the Central Front to supervise a fighting retreat from the border to

Smolensk Smolensk is a city and the administrative center of Smolensk Oblast, Russia, located on the Dnieper River, west-southwest of Moscow. First mentioned in 863, it is one of the oldest cities in Russia. It has been a regional capital for most of ...

. The Northern Front was commanded by Voroshilov, and the Southwestern Front by Budyonny, both of whom were removed by Stalin for incompetence after only a few weeks. Timoshenko was transferred to

in September to replace Budyonny and restore order at the gates of

. On 23 October, the Soviets made Timoshenko command the entire southern half of the Eastern Front and Georgy Zhukov command the northern half. In November and December 1941, Timoshenko organized major counter offensives in the Rostov region, as well as carving a bridgehead into German defenses south of

Kharkiv Kharkiv, also known as Kharkov, is the second-largest List of cities in Ukraine, city in Ukraine.

in January 1942. In May 1942, Timoshenko, with 640,000 men, launched a counter-offensive (the Second Battle of Kharkov), which was the first Soviet attempt to gain initiative in the springtime war. After initial Soviet successes, the Germans struck back at Timoshenko's exposed southern flank, halting the offensive, encircling Timoshenko's armies, and turning the battle into a major Soviet defeat. The fact that he was the most senior Soviet army officer with a front-line command during most of the first year after the German invasion turned Timoshenko, briefly, into an international celebrity, lionised in the US and UK in particular as a supposed military genius. According to an account written later in the war: General Georgy Zhukov's success in defending Moscow during December 1941 had persuaded Stalin that he was a better commander than Timoshenko. On 22 July 1942, Stalin replaced Timoshenko with Vasily Gordov as Commander of the Stalingrad Front due to his failures up to that point in the war, making him "Chairman of the High Command". He was called back into service as overall commander of the Northwestern Front between October 1942 and March 1943.

1943–1945

Nonetheless, Timoshenko continued active military action in the later phase of the war. From March 1943, he was appointed as a representative of the Stavka to coordinate the actions of a number of fronts. He took part in the development and conduct of some operations. From March to June 1943, Timoshenko coordinated the Volkhov and Leningrad fronts during the battles at the Leningrad sector. By December 1943, he had coordinated the North Caucasian Front and the Black Sea Fleet, oversaw the liberation of the North Caucasus and Novorossiysk, the landing operation in Kerch Peninsula, paving the way for the liberation of

Crimea Crimea ( ) is a peninsula in Eastern Europe, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, almost entirely surrounded by the Black Sea and the smaller Sea of Azov. The Isthmus of Perekop connects the peninsula to Kherson Oblast in mainland Ukrain ...

later. From February to June 1944, he oversaw the actions of 2nd and 3rd Baltic fronts, including the Starorussko-Novorzhevskaya operation. From August 1944 until the end of the war, he coordinated the actions of the 2nd, 3rd and 4th Ukrainian fronts. Timoshenko was awarded his first Order of Suvorov, 1st class, due to the achievements in the Caucasus and the bridgehead in Crimea. After the Red Army liberated

Chișinău Chișinău ( , , ; formerly known as Kishinev) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Moldova, largest city of Moldova. The city is Moldova's main industrial and commercial centre, and is located in the middle of the coun ...

on 25 August during the Jassy–Kishinev offensive, Timoshenko sent a telegram to Stalin that praised the achievement of the 2nd and 3rd Ukrainian fronts under his coordination and requested the promotion of their respective commanders, Malinovsky and Tolbukhin, to the rank of

. The commanders were indeed promoted, and Timoshenko was also awarded another Order of Suvorov, 1st class. On 4 June 1945, Timoshenko was awarded the Order of Victory for his contributions in the war. In 1945, Timoshenko attended the Yalta Conference. A rumor started in the Western press that Stalin had attacked Timoshenko, but this was later disproved. Between 15 August 1945 and 15 September 1945, Timoshenko travelled alone to review the Starye Dorogi displaced persons camp where

Auschwitz concentration camp Auschwitz, or Oświęcim, was a complex of over 40 Nazi concentration camps, concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany, occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) d ...

survivors recuperated after their liberation. Later, the author Primo Levi (Prisoner 174517) wrote in '' The Truce'' of how the extremely tall Timoshenko "unfolded himself from a tiny Fiat 500A Topolino" to announce that the liberated survivors would soon begin their final journey home.

Postwar and death

After the war, Timoshenko was reappointed commander of the Baranovichi Military District ( Byelorussian Military District since March 1946), then of the South Urals Military District (June 1946); and then the Byelorussian Military District once again (March 1949). In 1960, he was appointed Inspector-General of the Defence Ministry, a largely honorary post. From 1961 he chaired the State Committee for War Veterans. Timoshenko died at Moscow on 31 March 1970 at the age of 75. He was honoured with a state funeral and was cremated on 3 April. The urn containing his ashes was buried in the Kremlin Wall Necropolis.

Assessment

Timoshenko was highly praised by his contemporary Marshal Georgy Zhukov. During a discussion with Stalin in 1941, Zhukov praised Timoshenko's conducts at Smolensk sector, claimed that he had done everything he could and gained the trust of the soldiers. After the war, Zhukov repeated his praise during an interview with Konstantin Simonov, claimed that Timoshenko was a strong-willed, educated and experienced military man. He was removed from the frontline duty not because of his capability, but mainly because people were upset with his defeat at Kharkov and Timoshenko himself did not attempt to curry favour with his superior. General A.P. Pokrovsky, also in an interview with Simonov, gave a more multidimensional assessment of Timoshenko. Pokrovsky praised Timoshenko as a well-trained, hard-working commander and was proficient in military matters. However, Timoshenko had a deep distrust of the personnel of the Stavka, therefore he also worked with a separated group of trusted associates and double-checked the data gathered by both the Stavka group and his own group. Pokrovsky commented that Timoshenko's method was "abnormal" although his desire for accurate information was reasonable. Sergei Shtemenko in his memoirs also recounted Timoshenko's hostile attitude towards High Command's personnel including Shtemenko himself, however, their mutual relationship finally improved after some time working together. There was a Marshala Tymoshenko Street in (the capital of Ukraine)

Kyiv Kyiv, also Kiev, is the capital and most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both sides of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2, ...

Obolonskyi District Obolonskyi District is an urban district of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv. Obolonskyi District encompasses territories far beyond of its historical neighborhood sharing the same name. It was formed on 3 March 1975 and initially called as Minskyi ...

. On 27 October 2022 the

Kyiv City Council Kyiv City Council (, ), also known as Kyivrada (), is the city council of Kyiv municipality, the highest representative body of the city community. The members of city council are directly elected by Kyivans and the council is chaired by the M ...

renamed this street to Levko Lukianenko Street.

In popular culture

During the war with Poland, Isaac Babel rode with a cavalry unit commanded by Timoshenko, who was then aged 25, and who appeared as a named character in at least two of the stories that Babel wrote about his war experiences, one of which was originally published in

Odessa ODESSA is an American codename (from the German language, German: ''Organisation der ehemaligen SS-Angehörigen'', meaning: Organization of Former SS Members) coined in 1946 to cover Ratlines (World War II aftermath), Nazi underground escape-pl ...

under the title "Timoshenko and Melnikov". When the stories were republished, his name was changed to Savitsky, after Budyonny had denounced Babel's work as "slander" by a "literary degenerate". Babel's story ''My First Goose'' opens with this description: In Babel's ''The Story of a Horse'', originally "Timoshenko and Melnikov", "Savitsky" is described as having been removed from his command, and living with a Cossack woman, and is accused of having taken a white stallion that belonged a rival officer, who tries in vain to get it back. In the Warner Bros. cartoon '' Russian Rhapsody'', a caricature of

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...

referred to Timoshenko as "that Irish general, Tim O'Shenko".

Awards

Russian Empire

Soviet Union

* Honorary revolutionary weapon – a sword with a nominal Order of the Red Banner (28 November 1920)

Foreign awards

References

Citations

General sources

* * (1975, 2003) *

External links

Portrait of Marshal Semyon Timoshenko at the UK national archives
{{DEFAULTSORT:Timoshenko, Semyon 1895 births 1970 deaths Bolsheviks People from Akkermansky Uyezd People from Izmail Raion Russian military personnel of World War I Ukrainian people of World War I People of the Russian Revolution Military personnel of the 1st Cavalry Army Soviet military personnel of World War II from Ukraine Occupation of the Baltic states People of the Soviet invasion of Poland Ministers of defence of the Soviet Union Soviet komandarms of the first rank Marshals of the Soviet Union Members of the Central Committee of the 18th Congress of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) Candidates of the Central Committee of the 19th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Candidates of the Central Committee of the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Candidates of the Central Committee of the 22nd Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Candidates of the Central Committee of the 23rd Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Second convocation members of the Soviet of the Union Third convocation members of the Soviet of the Union Fifth convocation members of the Soviet of the Union First convocation members of the Soviet of Nationalities Sixth convocation members of the Soviet of Nationalities Seventh convocation members of the Soviet of Nationalities First convocation members of the Verkhovna Rada of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic Fourth convocation members of the Soviet of the Union Heroes of the Soviet Union Recipients of the Cross of St. George Recipients of the Military Order of the White Lion Recipients of the Order of Lenin Recipients of the Order of Suvorov, 1st class Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner Recipients of the Order of Victory Burials at the Kremlin Wall Necropolis